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BRITISH SCHOOL OF ARCHAEOLOGY IN EGYPT
AND EGYPTIAN RESEARCH ACCOUNT
TWENTY-NINTH YEAR
1 9 2 3
QAU AND BADARI I BY
GUY BRUNTON, O.B.E. WITH CHAPTERS BY ALAN GARDINER AND
FLINDERS PETRIE
LONDON
BRITISH SCHOOL OF ARCHAEOLOGY I N EGYPT
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, GOWER STREET, W.C.1
AND
BERNARD QUARITCH
11 GRAFTON STREET, NEW BOND STREET, W.I
' 927
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PRINTED m oae*r BR,T*,W BY RAZE'', WAIBON A N D VINGY, LD
LONDON *ED AYLBEBURY.
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BRITISH SCHOOL OF ARCHAEOLOGY IN EGYPT
PATRONS :
F.-M. VISCOUNT ALLENBY, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.
BARON LLOYD OF DOLOBRAN, G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., P.C.
Hottovary Director-hof. Sir FLINDERS PETRIE
Honoravy Treasurer-*C. H. CORBETT, J.P.
Honorary Secretary-Lady PETRIE
GENERAL COMMITTEE (*Executive Members)
HENRY BALFOUR
NORMAN H. BAYNES
Prof. R. C. BOSANQUET
EDWARD CLODD
Mrs. J. W. CROWFOOT Sir W. BOYD DAWKINS
*Miss ECKENSTEIN
N. EUMORFOPOULOS
Sir GREGORY FOSTER
Sir JAMES FRAZER
*Prof. ERNEST GARDNER (Chairman)
Prof. PERCY GARDNER
Lord BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER
Mrs. J. R. GREEN Mrs. F. LL. GRIFFITH
Dr. A. C. HADDON
*BASIL HOLMES
*E. J. HORNIMAN Baron A. VON HUGEL Prof. A. S. HUNT
Mrs. C. H. W. J O H N ~
Sir HENRY MIERS
J. G. MILNE
ROBERT MOND
F. C. MONTAGUE
*Miss M. A. MURRAY
P. E. NEWBERRY
F. W. PERCIVAL
Prof. PINCHES
Sir G. W. PROTHERO
A. L. RECKITT
Dr. G. A. REISNER
*H. SEFTON- JONES (Vice-chairman)
*Capt. E. G. SPENCER-CHURCHILL
Mrs. STRONG
Lady TIRARD
*Mrs. R. E. M. WHEELER
E. TOWRY WHYTE
C. L. WOOLLEY
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C O N T E N T S
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION SECT.
I. Personnel 1923 . z. Personnel 1924 . 3. Personnel 1925 . 4.
Division of work . 5. The arrangement for publication 6. The Tomb
Registers .
CHAPTER I1
THE SITE
7. Reasons for choice 8. Previous expeditions . 9. The tomb
numbering .
10. The Qau bay 11. Hemamieh . 12. Badari . . 13. Ground cleared
at Qau . 14. Ground cleared at Badari .
CHAPTER I11 METHOD OF RECORDING
I 5 The digging . . 16. Drawing of pottery . 17. General drawing
. 18. Planning and sexing .
CHAPTER IV
THE DATING
19. Difficulties of dating . zo. Means of dating . 21. Style an
unsafe guide . zz. Pottery the best clue . 23. The method of
sequencing .
SECT. P*Ol
24. Checking the ranges of pot types . 7 25. Dating the sequence
. 7 26. Proofs of the dating . 7 27. Elements of uncertainty. . .
8
CHAPTER V
ROBBERS' METHODS
28. In general . . 8 zg. Date of robbing . . 8 30. Condition of
graves when left. . 9
CHAPTER V1
PROTODYNASTIC PERIOD. INTRODUCTION
31. Definition of terms 32. The various cemeteries . 33. The
Tomb Register .
I CHAPTER V11 I DETAILS OF PROTODYNASTIC GRAVES
Tombs 403-4'9 . ,, 429 . ,, 470-562 . ,, 669-820 . ,, 1520-1964
. ,, 3112 .
3227-3229 . , 6001-6019 . .
CHAPTER V111
PROTODYNASTIC SUMMARY
6 6 6
42. The tomb types . 43. Attitudes of bodies 44. Pot burials
.
iv
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CONTENTS Y
(iBC1. PAD=
45. The pottery . . I5 46. The beads and amulets . . I5 47. The
stone vases . . 16 48. The copper objects . 17 49. Other objects. .
I7 50. Inscriptions and potmarks . 17
CHAPTER I X
SBCT. PAQE
73. Graves 2001-2103 . . 28 74. .. 3111-3195 . 29 75. 3202-3298
. 30 76. S # 4823-4930 . 31 77. l, 5316-5328 . 31 78. 5523-5544 .
31 79. 73337848 . 32
51. The site . , 18 52. The Protodynastic buildings . . 18 53.
The first temple . 19 54. The second temple. 19 55. Date of second
temple . . 20 56. Date of first temple . . 20 57. The objects found
. . 20
THE TEMPLE
CHAPTER X
THE POT BURIALS OF THE OLD KINGDOM
58. General characteristics . . 21
I CHAPTER XI11
The dating . . 2 1 Burials 459482 . . 21
,, 8197545 . . 22
CHAPTER XI
THE FOURTH AND FIFTH DYNASTIES DETAILS OF GRAVES
GRAVES OF THE SEVENTH-EIGHTH DYNASTIES
80. Graves 590-1115 . 33 81. ,, 1522-2040 . 34 82. ,, 3105-3289
. . 34 83. .. 3306-3748 . 35 84. 4842-4982 . 36 85. ,, 5004-5326 S
36 86. 2 , 73097931 . 37
CHAPTER XIV
THE NINTH TO ELEVENTH DYNASTIES DETAILS OF GRAVES
87. Ninth-Tenth Dynasties. Graves 301-968 38 88. , 1025-1107 38
89. 1509-1658 39 90. ,, 1706-2076 39 91. ,, 3108-3428 40 92.
4806-4975 41 93. S # 5009-5263 41
67. 31377728 . 25 68. Fifth-Sixth Dynasties. ,, 660-6502 .
25
62' Fourth Dynasty. Graves 606-1085
63. " 55287366 ' 23 64. Fifth Dynasty. ,, 626-978 . 23
CHAPTER XV
94. 9 , 72767944 42 95, Tenth-Eleventh Dynasties. ,, 20047830 42
96. Eleventh Dynasty. 303-5311 42
THE TYPES OF TOMBS
97. In general . 43 98. The closing-up . 43
69. Graves 423-881 . . 26 / 102. Shafts with end-on chambers .
45 CHAPTER XI1
GRAVES O F THE SIXTH DYNASTY
103. Reason for changes . 45 104. Dating of types . 45 105. The
bricks . 46
99. The simple graves . 44 100. Pits with square shafts. . . 44
1-01. Shafts with side chambers . 44
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER XVI THE COFFINS
8l.S.
106. The measurements . 107. Standard sizes . 108. Wood and
stucco. 109. Other materials .
CHAPTER XVII THE BODIES
1x0. Their treatment . 111. The wrappings . 112. Dismemberment .
113. The attitudes . 114. Preservation. 1x5. Hair .
CHAPTER XVIII
THE ATTITUDES
116. Classification 117. Direction and typing . 118. Dates of
attitudes . 119. Sexes and attitudes . 120. Status and attitudes
.
CHAPTER XIX
THE STONE VASES
121. Classification 122. Earliest forms . 123. Cylinder jars .
124. Collar-necked vases . 125. Dating of collar-necks . 126.
Splay-necked and other vases 127. special fonns . 128. Tall and
dumpy vases . 129. Sex and status of owners . 130. Position of
vases 131. Material and purpose .
CHAPTER XX
THE SEAL-AMULETS
132. Classification . 133. Development . 134, The scarabs.
SICT.
135. Pyramids and buttons . 136. ~nimal-backs . 137. Material
and design . 138. Position on the bodies . 139. Use and frequency
.
CHAPTER XXI
WEAPONS AND TOOLS
140. Weapons . 141. Tools . 142. Model tools . I 4 3 Toilet
boxes. 144. Contents of the boxes .
CHAPTER XXII
MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
145. Mirrors . 146. Date of mirrors . 147. Position of mirrors .
148. Headrests . 149. Quartzite grinders . 150. Palettes . 151.
History of eye-paint . 152. Blue glaze vases . 153. Other blue
glaze objects . 154. Carved toilet shell . 155. Spatha shells .
156. Sliced shells 157. Conus shells 158. Spoons and spatulae .
159. Other toilet articles . 160. Jewellery . 161. Rosette,
headband, and rings. 162. Miscellaneous objects . 163. Crucible .
164. Offerings .
CHAPTER XXIII
THE INSCRIPTIONS
165. Inscribed pottery . 166. Inscribed stone vases . 167. Stele
and mastabas . 168. Potmarks .
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CHAPTER XXIV
CONTENTS V i i
I :;'d. Ninth-Tenth Dynasties IDENTIFICATIONS AND ANALYSES
SECT. ,, 169. Metal ewer . . 69 170. Metal vulture amulet . .
69
174. Shells . 175. Botanical specimens .
. - 181. Changes of culture . 74 182. Ornaments . 74 183.
Pottery forms . 75
171. Minerals for toilet use . . 70 172. Plaster. . . 70 173.
Textiles and matting . 70
CHAPTER XXV I
184. Levels of prosperity . 75 185. Gold in the tombs . 76
SUMMARY OF THE FOURTH TO ELEVENTH DYNASTIES I
176. Fourth Dynasty . . 72 177. Fifth Dynasty . - 72 178. Sixth
Dynasty . 72 179. Seventh-Eighth Dynasties . 73
CHAPTER XXVI
THE INSCRIBED POTTERY BOWL. By Alan H. Gardiner . - 76
CHAPTER XXVII
NOTES ON DATING. By Flinders Petrie . 78
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L I S T O F P L A T E S
W i t h page referelzces to the descriptions
VOLUME I =L*=. PAC*
i. Map of the Qau-Hemamieh District . 3 ii. Qau, Southern
Cemetery, east part . 3, 4 iii. ,, ., ,, west part . 3. 4 iv. ,, ,,
, north part . 3, 4 v. Qau, Cemetery 400 . 4
vi. Hemamieh Cemetery . 3 vii. Sketch map of Badari District . 4
viii. Badari, Cemeteries 3100, 3200 . 4
ix. Badari, Cemeteries 4800-5000, and 5200 . 4 X, xi.
Protodynastic Tomb Register . . 10
xii. , , Tomb Plans . . I4 xiii-xvi. , , pottery, new corpus
types . I 5 xvii. ,, amulet and bead corpus 15
xviii, xix. ,, groups of alabasters . . 16 XX. ,, alabasters,
and miscellaneous objects . 17 xxi. ,, potmarks, slates, and
figurine 17
xxii. , S objects, and Badari temple (photographs) . . 17, 18
xxiii. Plan of Badari temple. . 18 xxiv. Third-Twelfth Dynasties,
Plans of Tombs, and Tomb Types . 43 xxv. Fourth-Twelfth Dynasties,
attitudes of bodies . 49
xxvi-xxviii. Fourth-Eleventh Dynasties, alabaster vases 52 xxix.
,, , , ,, , , 52
Fifth-Tenth Dynasties, blue glaze and metal objects . . 64, 66
xxx. Fourth-Eleventh Dynasties, alabaster vases (photographs) .
52
xxxi. Alabaster vases, temple wall, and ox-skulls (photographs)
. . 52,5667 xxxii, xxxiii. Fourth-Eleventh Dynasties, seal-amulets
. 55
xxxiv. ,, ,, ,F 55 , B ? g potmarks . . 68
xxxv. ,, beads and amulets (photographs) . . 60 xxxvi. l, g ,
amulets, seal-amulets, and scrabs (photographs) . 55
xxxvii. ,, ,, seal-amulets (photographs) . 55 xxxviii.
Fifth-Eleventh Dynasties, weapons and tools . 59 xxxix.
Fourth-Twelfth Dynasties, mirrors . . 61
xl. Fifth-Eleventh Dynasties, toilet objects and model vases . .
62, 64. 66 xli. Fourth-Tenth Dynasties, inscriptions, head-rests,
and crucible . . 68, 62, 67
xlii. p, ,, copper tools, weapons, and pottery (photographs) .
59 xliii-xlvii. ,, ,, Tomb Groups 72
xlviii. Fifth-Eighth Dynasties, groups of amulets . 72 xlix.
Sixth-Tenth Dynasties, Tomb Groups (photographs) . 72
viir
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OAU A N D BADARI
VOLUME I
CHAPTER I built on the desert edge under the cliffs some
five
INTRODUCTION miles north of the Qau camp ; and Graeco-Roman ,
rock-cut tombs were also made use of. Mr. Yeivin
I. THE work done by the British School of worked with us for a
week, while Mr. Bach and Mr. Archaeology in theQau-Badari district
occupied the Starkey spent a little of their time with Professor
three seasons 1923, 1924, and 1925. There was one Petrie. Miss
Caton-Thompson also camped with us camp only for the first and
third years, two in 1924, for the last fortnight. Mr. Terence Gray
joined our when the Director had his own camp in addition party as
a visitor for a month, and was of much to mine. The I923 party
consisted of Mr. C. H. G. assistance with the preservation and
packing of the Bach, Mr. J. L. Starkey, my wife, and myself. We
skulls. camped in and around the largest of the terraced 3. The
expedition of 1925 was on a small scale rock-tombs in the Qau
cliffs, some IOO ft. up, with only. My wife and myself were alone a
t our I924 a fine southward outlook over all the desert bay. camp
near Badari from the 30th of January I925 Water was obtained from a
well which we dug in until joined by Miss Caton-Thompson on the
19th the edge of the cultivation at the foot of the hill-side, of
February. I was taken to hospital at Assiut Work started on the 1st
of December 1922 and on the 23rd of March, and the work ended on
the ended on the 4th of April 1923. Dr. H. Frankfort 4th of April.
My very grateful thanks are due to joined our party for six weeks
on the 14th of Mr. R. Engelbach, the Chief Inspector of
Antiquities, December. This was both his and Mr. Starkey's and to
Mr. J. L. Starkey, then Field Director of first visit to Egypt. Mr.
Bach had worked with the the Michigan University Expedition, for
the way in School since the season of 1921. Professor Douglas
which, a t great inconvenience to themselves, they E. Derry spent
four days with us from the 26th of came to my wife's assistance and
undertook the January in order to give us his skilled help with the
very arduous work of packing the antiquities and mineralized human
bones. closing down the camp.
2. Professor Petrie occupied our Qau camp the Our old Fayumi
workman, Ali es Suefi, was with following year, bringing with him
Mr. S. Yeivin, us as usual, and his experience was invaluable in
Mr. T. R. Duncan Greenlees, Mr. Noel F. Wheeler, detecting the
sites of the cemeteries, which were all three new students, Mrs. W.
J. Benson, and often almost invisible on the surface. Miss Gertrude
Caton-Thompson. Excavations 4. The recording of graves was done
chiefly by started at the beginning of December 1923, and Mr. Bach,
Mr. Starkey, Mr. Yeiviu, and Mr. Wheeler, were carried on till
April 1924. Mr. Yeivin left to though a certain amount was the work
of the manage Mr. Robert Mond's work at Luxor in Director and
myself. The general surveying and February, and the Director
returned home in March. plan drawing was the work of Mr. Bach and
Mr.
My own party was the same as that of the previous Wheeler, the
Director planning the great rock- year, with the addition of Mrs.
G. B. Aitken and tombs and Qau hill. Professor Petrie and I photo-
Miss Irene Donne, making six in all. We began graphed, with help
from Mr. Bach. Mr. Starkey work on the 28th of November 1923 and
closed saw to all the packing during the first two seasons. down in
the middle of April 1924. Huts were Mr. Greenlees's time was
entirely devoted to the
1-1
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2 INTRODI JCTORY
laborious task of copying the dim vestiges of the paintings and
inscriptions in the largest of the Uah-ka tombs. My wife's time was
very fully occupied with the drawing, nearly all the plates in
these volumes being entirely her work. It is due to her
indefatigable patience and skill that we are able to publish for
the first time a cor$zcs of the great quantities of Old Kingdom and
later amulets which have not been studied hitherto. Miss Donne
helped with the drawing of Roman beads, register keeping, and the
preservation of objects, ivories especially-a very delicate and
difficult work. Mrs. Benson and Mrs. Aitken helped with the multi-
tudinous jobs which fall to the lot of all excavators.
Miss Caton-Thompson devoted her time partly to a study of the
geology of the Qau bay with a view to tracing the source of the
mineralized bones, and mainly to the very careful excavation of
Pre- dynastic settlements near Hemamieh. 5. The delay in bringing
out the report of our
excavations is due principally to the desirability of publishing
the results of the three years together. This has resulted in the
banking up of a great mass of material. The arrangement of the
cor$ws of amulets and beads has taken up much time ; and my own
illness in 1925 delayed the work very much. I t has been thought
best to arrange the material according to date rather than
locality. The objects found along the whole desert edge from south
of Qau to near Naga Wissa are similar at any one period. It was
obviously better to mass the results than to issue separate volumes
on Qau, Hemamieh, and Badari. The first two volumes therefore deal
with the period from the First to the Eleventh Dynasties. and the
third with the later periods and the great rock-tombs. These
volumes are named Qazc and Badari , while the fourth, which is
confined to the Badarian and other Predynastic ages, is called
Badar i in order to distinguish it easily. Owing to the large
number of plates required to illustrate the finds of the early
Dynastic periods it has been thought best to confine the first
volume to every- thing of more general interest, and to relegate to
the second the Tomb Register, and the pottery, amulet, and bead
cor$ora of the Fourth to Eleventh Dynas- ties, for the use of the
specialist. My thanks are due to Mr. G. D. Hornblower, who read
through the text when in manuscript and made some valuable
suggestions.
6. The Tomb Registers have been split up into periods : the
Fourth Dynasty and all pot burials ;
the Fifth Dynasty; Sixth Dynasty; Seventh to Eighth Dynasties ;
Ninth to Tenth Dynasties ; and a few indeterminate graves in groups
between these. Each object shown in a plate has the tomb number
placed under it on the left, with its period in Roman numerals. The
student will thus know to which section of the Tomb Register he
must refer. In a few cases it was found necessary to alter the date
of a tomb after the Register had been completed. The more correct
date is in this case added in brackets. Thus 3601 ix (viii) means
that grave 3601 will be found in the Ninth-Tenth Dynasty section of
the Registers, but would have been more correctly placed in the
Seventh-Eighth section. It is more convenient to refer to dynasties
than to use such compound expressions as Early First Intermediate
Period, and so on. But it must be strictly understood that these
references to definite dynasties are not meant to imply an exacti-
tude of date. The whole of the dating is a matter of sequence more
than anything else ; and where inscriptions and royal names are
almost entirely absent, it is sequence only which can be
determined. There is, I think, little doubt as to the approximate
date of each section. But the overlapping of styles in different
periods is so common that there can be no certainty that any one
particular tomb is cor- rectly placed. In the plates, viii is used
for vii- viiith, and ix for ix-xth for the sake of brevity. Making
these allowances, then, the student can see the date of each object
on each plate without further reference. But a glance at the
Register will show what proof there is for the date given.
CHAPTER I1
THE SITE
7. WHEN the expedition of 1923 was entrusted to me, I selected
the Qau region for various reasons. Previous work had shown that
the rock-tombs were of the finest order, both in type and in the
quality of their decoration. It seemed that the great general
cemetery, though badly plundered by the natives, might prove
equally interesting. The god Antaeus worshipped in the nome capital
was a mysterious divinity about whom little was known. A desert
road led to the Red Sea from the Qau bay. And, more particularly,
much Predynastic stuff was to be seen in dealers' shops, all
reported to have come from Qau. I t was very desirable to see
if
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THE SITE 3
any of this was left, and to rescue it as quickly as
possible.
8. Two expeditions had previously worked in the vicinity, one
under Professor Schiaparelli in 1906 and another under Professor
Steindorff in 1914. They excavated chiefly around the great tombs
in the cemetery on the hill-side. No results of this work have so
far been published, with the exception of a short note in the
Jozcrnal of Egy$tian Archaeo- logy I , p. 217. The work of the
School in 1923 began with the southern cemeteries, mainly the great
field of graves near the village of Qau el Kebir (or Etmanieh as it
is now called). We then explored all the ground as far north as
Hemamieh, doing a little digging in the hill-side cemetery en
$assant without much result. Professor Petrie in 1924 confined his
work to the main rock-tombs, and to further digging in the Etmanieh
cemeteries. My party finished the Hemamieh site from the northern
camp at Badari, and then started on the cemeteries three miles to
the north while the weather was still cool. We worked back
gradually to the house, taking everything as it came. In 1925 we
com- pleted the excavation of some ground near the house which had
not been finished the previous year.
g. Our system of tomb numbering is as follows. We used the
numbers zoo and 200 for isolated cemeteries (see map, pl. i),
300-1200 for the main Etmanieh cemeteries, 1300 for the isolated
hill with " Pan " graves (pl. i), 1400 for tombs on the hill-side
under the cliffs, 1450 for tombs in the level ground at the foot,
1500-2100 for the Hemamieh site, 3000-6000 for the various
cemeteries near Badari running from north to south, and 6500 for a
few graves found by Miss Caton-Thompson in the settlement north of
Hemamieh. Our 1923 numbers end at 1652, and the 1924 numbers at
5299. All Professor Petrie's graves, from the cemeteries in the
centre of the Qan bay, are numbered from 7000. The number of any
grave therefore at once indicates the site, the year, and the
excavator.
10. The great desert bay of Qau extends for six miles or more
from point to point. I t is surrounded by the usual limestone
mountains which recede from the cultivation some ten miles or so to
the east. I t is roughly bisected by a very shallow wadi. This
carries away the water which comes down in floods every four or
five years from the gorges in the hills. To the north of where this
wadi meets the fields is the modern village which used to be called
Qau el Kebir, but is now known
as Etmanieh. A separate Coptic village stands just to the north
of this.
The surface of the desert is fairly flat, with low hillocks here
and there. It is pebbly, flint strewn, and rather soft, but not
particularly sandy, except in the far south, where the north wind
has banked up the sand against the hills. The soil is unsuitable
for graves, being a rather loose alluvial gravel for some depth.
The substratum of mar1 is too deep to be reached by the
grave-diggers, and is water- logged except on the hill-side below
the rock-tombs at the northern horn of the bay.
As there was no high ground available, the main Qau cemeteries
were placed on the rise to the north of the main wadi, to the south
and east of the present village. All the deeper tombs are now very
damp, though only some of the stairway tombs close to the
cultivation are actually down to water-level. The dampness of the
soil has rotted most of the wood- work in the deeper and better
graves. As a general rule there was nothing more than a stain in
the filling of the chamber to indicate the presence of a coffin ;
and the bones were often quite soft and pulpy. The shallow graves
were naturally drier, but in them the coffins were also in a very
bad state. This was not such a misfortune, however, as the burials
were poor, and the coffins probably unin- scribed. I t is entirely
due to the damp that we discovered no inscriptions, except a very
few scratched on pottery. There was, however, an almost complete
absence of salt, a blessing which we fully appreciated.
The course of the Nile near Qau has changed considerably in the
last century. On the map (pl. i) the eastern bank, taken from the
map in the Descri$tion, shows by a dotted line where the river
flowed in the time of Napoleon. I t has since then completely
washed away the Ptolemaic temple of the nome capital Antaeopolis,
as well as the old village of Qau, which has changed to its present
site.
11. The cliffs a t the northern horn of the great bay arise
directly from the fields, and then recede again a little to the
east, leaving a narrow strip of desert running north for about five
miles till the cliffs form another cape rising from the sea of
fields. This strip is composed of a series of spurs or foothills of
limestone detritus. At the centre is a large wadi, to the south of
which stands the village of Hemamieh, full of very aggressive dogs.
Close by are the sculptured rock-tombs of the Fourth Dynasty, which
were completely photographed
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4 THE SITE
and planned by Professor Steindorff in 1914, but are still
unpublished. The ancient cemeteries lie to the north and south of
the wadi.
12. After rounding the cape referred to above, another and
longer strip of low desert is reached running as far as Naga Wissa,
where the hills again almost meet the cultivation, six or seven
miles to the north. The cliffs recede to a distance of about half a
mile in the southern part of this strip. It is cut up into a
multitude of low spurs, running down from the cliffs to the crops.
These, with their cemeteries and village sites, are shown on pl.
vii. The spurs which we first explored are numbered from I onwards
on the map. North of Sour I we saw nothine that looked like an
ancient
The Northern Cemetery is entirely Professor Petrie's work. Being
of the Second Intermediate Period, the plan appears in Volume
111.
14. At Badari we completely cleared Spur 6 and Spurs 15 and 16.
Cemeteries 4800, 5100, and 5300-5800 were also exhausted. 5200 was
only sampled and found to be very badly plundered. This was also
the case with Cemetery 6000. All the other spurs were tackled as
they came, but very little was found.
CHAPTER I11
METHOD OF RECORDING v
site, but it was too far from our camp to explore 15. THE
student who has not worked in the field thoroughly. There was as
much as we could tackle is probably unaware of how the work of
recording to the south. is carried out. I t may not be out of
place, there-
13. I t is necessary to place on record here the fore, to give a
few details of how my conclusions extent of ground which we cleared
exhaustively. were obtained at Qau and Badari. The South Cemetery
of Qau is of very great extent In the first place, the workmen were
never working and has been well worked over by the natives, who,
without one of the staff on the spot, although the however, have
neglected the deeper shaft tombs, diggings were often over half an
hour's walk from as the objects found did not repay them for the
the camp. One or two of us would start out before labour involved
in working them. We began at sunrise with the men, taking breakfast
with us. To the east end, where the tombs are numbered 300 ensure
the maximum of supervision, work was never in the plan (pl. ii),
but had to abandon it as it was carried on in more than one place
at a time. I t is very unproductive. Professor Petrie worked this
the general rule that when the remains of a burial area the
following year (graves numbered ~ O O O ) , are found, no object or
bone is moved until the but the results were again poor. We next
started recorder is on the spot. I t is then for him to decide a
very thorough clearance from the west side, from whether the
workman shall continue the clearance, a line roughly parallel to a
line joining Points D or whether he shall do it himself. In the
case of and E (pl. iii). This clearance extended to the east
undisturbed bodies the recorder invariably examines as far as my
tomb numbers are shown on the plan. everything himself. He will
also do so if the grave Results becoming poorer and poorer, we were
forced is only partially plundered. But where only a few to try
elsewhere. We then worked round to the scattered bones remain, the
native digger will be north-west, where the earliest graves of the
bricked- told to tutn them over. To ensure that no small over type
were found ; and also to the north, where, objects, such as beads,
are overlooked, the contents however, we did not do more than
sample certain of nearly all graves are sifted. Large canvas
patches. Professor Petrie continued the work in sheets are spread
out at the grave-side, so that there this direction, and recorded
many more graves. is no chance of sand from the grave being mixed
with See ppl. iii and iv. sand from the ground around. If the grave
is a
Cemetery 400. between the fields and the village damp one, the
contents are spread out on the sheets (pl. i), was completely
turned over by us, with one to dry before being sifted. We employed
special small exception. Beginning at the south with our children,
generally girls, to do the sifting ; their backs to the fields, we
cleared right up to the walls sharp eyes and neat fingers ensured
the finding of of the houses. Then a fresh line was started from
the tiniest gold beads, while a share of the bakhshish the east
driving over to our first clearance, as shown stimulated
theirhonesty. I t was in this way that we in the plan (pl. v). I t
was only in the low area where found so many very small objects,
such as amulets, are the graves marked 800 that we left some ground
and the early scarabs. The latter often came from incompletely
explored. the most unlikely-looking plundered graves, and
-
METHOD OF RECORDING 5
fully justified the continuous use of sieves for every grave,
however unpromising it might appear. To prevent all possibility of
a workman getting his beads mixed from different graves, each has a
supply of small paper bags, into which the beads are put direct
from the sieves. Everything found is marked temporarily at the
grave-side, and again permanently in camp, if it is to be packed
up.
16. One of the chief difficulties in excavating a cemetery is
the proper recording of the pottery. I t is obvious that where
common types occur constantly, it is waste of time and labour to
draw them afresh year after year. When dealing liter- ally with
thousands of pots, it is undesirable to carry them all back to
camp. Mr. Bach and the writer therefore prepared copies of all the
British School drawings of pots which had been given corpus numbers
in recent years, and arranged them on sheets loosely bound in hard
spring-back covers, one set for each of the principal periods.
These sets were always taken to the work ; and where it was found
that a type had been drawn before, its corpus number was put down
on the tomb-card, any variation in ware, make, or decoration being
noted. Unless it was required for packing, the pot was then put
back in the grave. All new types were taken to camp and, unless in
large numbers, drawn the same evening, the drawings were then and
there inserted in the field corpus, and numbered, ready for the
next day's work.
17. In addition to new varieties of pottery, practically every
object was drawn; and in cases of special interest, photographed as
well. The beads and amulets were treated in the same way as the
pottery, each one being either typed or, if new, drawn, on the day
following its discovery. I t was only possible to do this by
keeping the drawing in general strictly up to date. Many days my
wife was hard at it until well after tea-time.
To prevent mistakes in records, numbering of objects, entering
of numbers on drawings, and those of the drawings on the
tomb-cards, everything was checked over each evening. Mistakes
could then be rectified. Details being fresh in the minds of all,
questions could be answered with certainty, or, if necessary, the
grave visited again before being filled in. To check is always a
silze qzla non ; to do it even a day late is to find that small
points are forgotten.
18. The planning of the cemeteries was done mainly by the
prismatic compass and tape method,
measuring to various poles placed where most convenient, and
afterwards tied on to the general map. This is a quick and handy
way of plotting graves, and quite accurate enough for all practical
purposes. Professor Petrie's and Mr. Wheeler's plan was by
cross-bearings to two or three fixed points. The orientation of
graves was also deter- mined by prismatic compass.
The sexing of skeletons is not always an easy matter. The
presence of the pelvis is almost essential ; and some previous
experience or tuition is necessary, otherwise the record may be
unreliable in this respect. We were fortunate enough to be visited
in camp, soon after the work at Qau started, by Professor Douglas
Derry. He very kindly gave detailed instruction on sexing to my
assistants on the spot ; and I think that the determinations of sex
given by them in the Tomb Register are there- fore accurate in the
main.
CHAPTER IV THE DATING
19. THE dating of the majority of the graves at Qau and Badari,
which were later than the Proto- dynastic period and earlier than
the Middle Kingdom, was a problem of some complexity. There were a
great number of graves. There were practically no inscriptions. But
there was a very general and evident change of fashion in the
funerary objects used, and also in the type of tomb, which
indicated, if not the actual date, at least the date-sequence of
the graves. I t is of course possible to compare objects with
similar ones from other work where they may have been more or less
well dated ; but this course is open to objection. In all study it
is obviously better to draw inferences from internal evidence, and
then to compare them with conclusions from previous excavations. If
these conclusions do not agree, either may be wrong. It is always
possible that former work may be an unsafe guide ; to build on what
may be erroneous is merely to perpetuate the error and make matters
worse. Then again it is most undesirable to date one tomb in a
series by one object, for instance an alabaster vase, and another
tomb by something different, say a string of beads. There is always
the possi- bility that an object is not really contemporary with
the burial, but has been inherited or even plundered from an older
cemetery. I have seen Predynastic beads on the neck of a Roman
mummy,
-
6 THE D
and a Predynastic polished red pot in position with half a dozen
Ptolemaic ones. Further, there is a possibility that the style in
vogue near the capital of the country may continue in fashion
considerably later in distant parts of the country. The poorer
classes, too, are more conservative than the wealthy.
20. What, then, is to be our guide ? The type of tomb is at
first sight a good criterion of date ; but this depends to some
extent on the nature of the ground and the status of the
individual. The attitude of the body, again, cannot be taken as a
good proof of date. The three bodies in grave 3195 were all in
different positions. The position of the grave in the cemetery does
not help us much. At the present day the graves are dug in a
cemetery without any order : a new grave may be made near the
cultivation or far back in the desert. In ancient times this was
also the custom. We must then fall back on the objects found in the
graves. Stone vases are not satisfactory : they are not
sufficiently common ; they were used and re-used in daily life, and
very often buried only when worn out. The beads and amulets are
found in profusion ; but here the common beads are not distinctive,
while the finer ones are less likely to be contemporary. Seal-
amulets and scarabs are not found in sufficient quantities, and
have been hitherto the subject of too much dispute to be taken as
dating material.
21. I t is sometimes argued that because fine specimens of, let
us say, amulets are fbund in one grave, and bad or debased examples
in another, that the latter grave is later in date. This, however,
is a very unsafe guide. Though good work may not have been done at
all times, bad work certainly was. And we find in several cases
good and bad together. An instance of this is the group of amulets,
5535, pl. xlviii, where large well-cut stone amulets came from the
neck and poor little blue glaze ones from the wrists. Another point
that cannot be insisted on is that all good work belongs to the
great ages of the history, and the inferior to the troubled times
of the Intermediate periods. This certainly is the case with royal
monuments ; but where small objects of daily use are concerned, i t
would seem that in the times of weak central government the country
districts were not so denuded of their artisans and craftsmen as in
the great ages ; they were therefore available to produce their
handi- work for local use.
22. There remains the pottery. Here at last we reach
satisfactory material for dating or rather
ATING
sequencing. I t is found in profusion ; it is easily breakable
and of little value, and so cannot be considered an heirloom ; it
never excited the greed of robbers ; and the forms gradually
changed with time. Pottery may very rarely be re-used for offerings
; and it may be thrown about by plunderers in a cemetery and so be
found in a grave where it does not belong. But it is generally
found more or less in position in the graves ; and for all these
reasons it is quite the best class of object by which to arrive at
the time-sequence of the tombs.
23. In our sequencing of the Qau tombs by means of the pottery,
the following method was adopted at the end of the first season's
work. The first thing to be seen clearly was that there were three
main classes of the commonest form of pot : (I) those with a
shoulder or bulge above the centre and a more or less pointed base
(types 69-71, pl. lxxx) ; ( 2 ) those with bulge at centre and more
rounded base (types 62, 63, pl. lxxxvi) ; and (3) the drop- shaped
pots, with the bulge below the centre (type 30, pl. lxxxix). It was
obvious, from a great variety of considerations, that (I) were the
earliest in date and (3) the latest. The tomb-cards were then
sorted out into four groups, three according to these types of
pots, and one where such were absent. The three groups accounted
for some half the total number of cards. Where two of the main pot-
types occurred in one grave, the cards were placed in intermediate
groups. There were very few indeed of these, and no case at all of
(I) and (3) in combina- tion. Next the fourth main group or residue
was dealt with. Various types of pots other than those already
considered were found in the combinations which had been sorted out
into the three main groups of cards. Cards with such pots were then
taken from the residue and placed in the main groups where they
belonged. This process was repeated until very few cards with pots
remained, the pots on them being unique specimens. These were then
placed where allied types were to be found. The residue of cards
then consisted of those with no pottery at all ; these had to be
dealt with later.
Many other things had now to be considered. Were cognate types
too widely scattered ? Proto- dynastic forms, the fine
sealing-wax-red ware, the forms of squat toilet vases, the buff
pots with flattened bases, the characteristic Sedmenti forms, the
bes vases, and others, were all taken into account. The pulling
together of these necessitated the formation of a fourth big group,
intermediate
-
THE DATING 7
between (2) and (3). containing both the oval and drop pots
which formed the basis of the main classification : but this was
not done until the second year's results were incorporated.
24. Finally, a list of all pot-types was made, in a vertical
column, and the sheets divided vertically into eight other columns.
Four of these were for the main groups of graves, and four for
intermediate or uncertain groups. The occurrence of each pot was
then marked in the appropriate column. This involved between two
and three thousand entries. This was done to check the results, as
it could then be seen at a glance whether a type had too wide a
range to be likely. I t was possible to make a certain number of
further adjustments, and the tomb-cards were moved from one group
to another accordingly. The periods of each type, and the number of
examples of each period, have been placed against the drawing in
the cor$us. I t will easily be seen how very limited is the range
of each, hardly any extending over more than three contiguous
groups, and most over two only. The reliability of such an
arrangement naturally depends on the number of combinations of
types in the graves. Many large groups will give an almost perfect
seqnencing, while solitary pots are useless. We found few graves
containing large groups ; but small ones were sufficiently numerous
to render the results trust- worthy.
The tomb-cards without pots were then sorted out according to
the types of beads and amulets. Those without either pots or beads,
according to the stone vases, and scarabs and seal-amulets next.
This practically disposed of the whole material. As each class of
object was dealt with, the sequence of the graves was reconsidered
to ensure that no closely similar objects should be widely
separated. Even after the Tomb Register (ppl. l-lxix) was
completed, i t was seen that certain graves would be better placed
in other divisions. These are accordingly marked to that effect in
the Register. The more correct date is added to each drawing in
brackets on the plates. In dealing with indefinite material such as
this, very exact results cannot be looked for. I t is not possible
to claim that every tomb is registered in its correct section ; but
the order of the very great majority is, I think, without
question.
The next thing was to settle how each of our subdivisions was to
be distinguished. Of internal evidence of date there was none, with
the exception
of graves 3202 and 3217, which contained objects with the names
of Nefer-ka-ra (Pepy 11) and Queen Pepy-ankh-nes of the vith dyn.
This then suggested that we should not be far wrong in calling this
section of the Register " Sixth Dynasty." The previous sections
were then provisionally labelled Fourth, Fourth-Fifth, Fifth, and
Fifth- Sixth Dynasty ; and the subsequent ones Seventh- Eighth,
Ninth-Tenth, Tenth-Eleventh, and Eleventh Dynasty respectively. The
iv-vth, v-vith, X-xith, and xiith are extremely small groups of
tombs which are rather doubtful in position and may belong to
either earlier or later groups.
25. I t has been objected that where our know- ledge of the
actual history is so slight, as in the vii-xth dyn. period, it is
misleading to use the dynastic numbering at all for dating
purposes. But in these volumes I have retained these numbers solely
as a matter of convenience, preferring them to the clumsy terms
Early First Intermediate Period and Late First Intermediate Period.
In all this dating it is to be understood that a term such as "
Sixth Dynasty " merely implies that the grave in question is so
dated by objects which in most cases belong to that dynasty. I t is
a well-known fact that styles change after, and often some time
after, the commencement of a dynasty, as for instance in the
xviiith dyu. I t would be absurd to maintain that new types
appeared in general use throughout the country at just the same
time as a new family occupied the throne.
26. The correctness of our dating of the various groups of tombs
may be tested by a comparison with facts established elsewhere.
Eighteen of the small square tomb-shafts fall in the iv-vth dyn.
sections of our Register, while one only comes in the vith. Such
square shafts are dated to Khafra by a sealing (GARSTANG, Th i~d
Egy$tian Dylzasty, pl. xxxi, tomb R. 9%) ; to Unas by a sealing
(Abydos, in Dr. Frankfort's work 1926, not yet published) ; and to
Pepy I, by a cylinder (Abydos, 1909, Tomb 913, unpublished: copy of
record kindly lent me by Professor Garstang. See Alznals of
Archaeology 11, p. 127).
The alabaster vases, types 12, 13, 16-21, 24, 26, 27, pl. xxvi,
with a curving out but not flauged foot, and inclined to be tall
and slender, are dated by us to the vth dyn. (seven examples) and
vith dyn. (four examples, three of which are small). Other dated
examples of this form of vase are of Khufu (Univ. Coll.) ; of Queen
Hetepheres (REISNER,
-
8 THE DATING
Illustrated London News, 26th March 1927. p. 538) ; of Sahura
(Brit. Mus. 29330, Guide to Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Egyptian
Rooms, 1922, pl. ii, p. 15) ; and of Ne-user-ra (Berlin Mus. 13111,
SCHAFER and ANDRAE, Pro$ylaen-Kunstgeschichte, 11, p. 252, and
PETRIE, Abydos 11, pl. xiv, 289).
The cylinder seals, pl. xxxii, I and 2, seem to bear the bungled
names of " Sa Ra Userkaf " and "the Horus Dad." The latter may be
intended for the full Dad-khau Dad-ka-ra. These come from two tombs
which both fall into the section of the Register which we have
labelled "Fifth Dynasty."
The round buttons with loop backs, nos. 55-98, ppl. xxxii,
xxxiii, fall half in the vith and half in the vii-viiith dyn. One
such is dated to Pepy I1 or thereabouts (PETRIE, Dendereh, p. 10) ;
another, oval with loop back, has the name of Teruru of the
vii-viiith dyn. (PETRIE, Scarabs and Cylinders, PI. X, P. 17).
The circular copper ornament, pl. xxix, 18, which had originally
been inlaid, is dated to the ix-xth dyn. period. I found precisely
similar ornaments in the cemeteries of that age at Sedment and
Mayana (PETRIE and BRUNTON, Sedment I , pp. 11, IS) ; also another
in the Cairo Museum - - -. from Saqqara found by Firth, who dates
it to exactly the same period (FIRTH and GUNN, Teti Pyramid
Cemeteries I , p. 50).
Doubtless other precise dating links could be found with further
research. The pottery agrees closely with results from other sites
; for instance, the types 58 and 66, pl. xc, are to all intents the
same as types 63,64, and 86 (PETRIE and BRUNTON, Sedment I, ppl.
xxxii, xxxiv) of perhaps a slightly earlier date ; and many other
resemblances might be quoted. But the consistency of the results,
in that so many similar objects fall into the same date divisions,
is the best proof that the sequencing is trustworthy. All the round
button-amulets are to be found in two of the divisions ; the
rectangular shafts with chambers on west are two-thirds vith dyn.
and one-third vii-viiith dyn., never later. The gold bangles are
all of the vii-viiith dyn. with one vith and one (a poor example)
ix-xth. The boxes with the copper hooks are all vi-viiith dyn. with
one later. A glance through the corpus of amulets will show how
many types have a very small date-range. This range of the objects
in general will be fully dealt with in the summary, and i t is not
necessary to go into further detail here.
Each of the three great divisions of the vith, vii-viiith, and
ix-xth dynasties represents a period of from 170 to zoo years,
possibly less. The number of burials recorded is 497, 392, and 384
respectively. This indicates that there was little numerical change
in the population of the district from the vth to the xith dynasty,
a fact which agrees with the change in style of the burials being
gradual only. There was no disturbance due to a marked influx of
peoples or ideas.
27. It would be possible to pick out many graves from the three
main divisions of vith, vii-viiith, and ix-xth dyns. and classify
them as early or late in each ; but where the evidence is, in
individual cases, so indefinite, it seems better to leave the
classification broadly outlined only, and not to indulge in
over-refinements. I t cannot be too much insisted upon that the
results are only of value because they are based on a mass of
material ; the greater the number of graves dealt with, the greater
the certainty of the deductions.
CHAPTER V
ROBBERS METHODS
28. A FEW remarks on tomb-robbing may not be out of place here.
Those observers who have not had much experience in clearing graves
are a little inclined to interpret the conditions they may find in
a rather fanciful way. A wider knowledge would make the more
prosaic explanation evident to them. We may also glean a few facts
of interest by noting the habits of the ancient plunderers.
Every now and then in a robbed grave a sherd is found with its
edges well worn down by use. This is the implement used by the
robber to turn over the sand or other filling of the grave. But it
is evidence of modern rather than ancient plundering. A modern
workman will often use a sherd for this purpose ; and we sometimes
used them ourselves. Moreover, the graves were probably robbed in
early times long before they had filled up with sand, graves, or
tombs, that is to say, where the burial had been placed in a
chamber, or covered over to keep it clear.
29. We have good evidence that the early plunderer was at work
soon after the burial was made. In 789 an untouched interment lay z
ft. above the floor of the shaft, while the body in the chamber had
been thoroughly ransacked. Both
-
ANCIENT ROBBERIES 9
were of the vith dyn. Again, in 4856. a body with ring beads was
left as worthless. Whether anything an alabaster vase lay
undisturbed on the floor of of value was taken we cannot say, but
the body the shaft, while the room had been plundered ; was intact.
This rolling over by plunderers may both burials were also of the
vith dyn. That the account for some of the bodies lying on their
right robbing was done soon after the interment is also sides
instead of on the usual left. In 548 the indirectly, but quite
clearly, shown by the know- three alabasters were above the
offering pots ; the ledge that the robbers evidently had of which
bones were all in position, but there were no beads. graves were of
value to them, and which not. Perhaps in this one case a toilet-box
had been Over and over again a good bricked-up chamber searched for
valuables and the contents thrown on yas discovered quite intact.
When opened it was one side. In 712 there was an untouched body in
a found to contain nothing of any worth. Gold of coffin, but there
was no lid. This had possibly course was the robber's great desire.
We may been removed and put on one side when the robbers infer that
this was almost always on the bodies, were disturbed. Or perhaps a
glance at the body just as at the present day a fellah woman will
wear was enough to tell them they were wasting their all her wealth
rather than leave it a t home unpro- time. In 618 the body was
pulled out into the tected. And so we find in many cases that the
toilet shaft, but this was done by the undertakers in boxes were
not touched unless they interfered with later times. The bones of
the second burial lying the operations ; the head is disturbed to
allow the in the room were like those of the xviiith dyn. necklaces
to be removed ; and in four cases we in condition, while the bones
in the shaft were like found that one arm had been taken for its
bracelet, those of the ix-xth dyn. while the rest of the body had
every bone in position. The absence of arms mentioned above can be
In 1022 and 1045 the right arm was removed, leaving easily
explained ; but in 892 there were no legs the hand in place. In
1140 the right arm with below the knee, and in 1627 no feet. This
is most the hand, and in 3422 the left arm had gone. Such likely
the result of subsequent surface digging, as discrimination shows a
very exact and intimate they were both shallow graves. Harder to
explain knowledge of the burial, and the pilfering must is the
complete absence of skulls in several graves, have been done very
soon after the chamber had apparently untouched otherwise. These
were eleven been bricked up, if not indeed before. Sometimes in
number, eight of males, three of females. Of the perhaps grave
sinkers were the culprits, for we find latter, one, 425, had a
head-rest, but it was in the that a shaft may collide with a
previous chamber, shaft, and no beads were left. Another, 636, had
or one chamber may cut into another, thus affording a few beads
remaining. The third, 1603, still had a good opportunity to
dishonest persons. Very a quantity of beads but none of value. The
dates likely this bad digging was done deliberately on of all
eleven vary from vith to xth dyn., and the occasions. Thus the
shaft of 1639 gave access to tombs are of various types. The
removal of the the chamber of 1641, and the chambers of 1691 heads
was probably due to more than one cause ; and 1693 communicated.
The marvel is that the there are not sufficient examples to suggest
the Egyptians should have gone on from century to possibility that
the heads were buried separately. century placing their precious
possessions in graves In one case only was the walling up intact,
in 908 when they must have known the fate that was so (see Section
80). The eight graves of males referred soon to overtake them. to
above are 430, 441. 783. 825, and 863, vith;
30. Robbers leave graves in all sorts of conditions ; 1594 and
2069, vii-viiith ; and 967, ix-xth dyns. they may be completely
emptied, or they may be In another, 643, the cranium was wanting
but the only just touched, as in the cases mentioned above,
mandible was in position. where the arms only had been taken. In
565 the The opposite state of affairs was seen in 706, 711, head
and shoulders had been torn off and thrown 713, and 1004, where the
heads only had been left. on to the pelvis. In 1030 the body became
divided In 7539 an extra skull had somehow got into an at the waist
as it was being pulled out into the shaft, unplundered c o f i .
leaving a gap of nearly 2 feet. But here the robbers We did not
notice any case of burials being burnt were disturbed,as the
goldbracelets and gold amulets by plunderers, a t least not in the
cemeteries which at the neck were not taken. In 3313 the body was
we explored. On the hill-side a t Qau, however, in rolled into the
shaft, but the necklace of black glaze the large cemetery below the
great rock-tombs, there
1-2
-
I0 PROTODYNASTIC PERIOD INTRODUCTION
were burnt fragments lying about. We need not suppose, then,
that the robbers of this part of Egypt were in any way different
from their confrdres elsewhere.
CHAPTER V1
PROTODYNASTIC PERIOD. INTRODUCTION
31. THE term " Protodynastic " is used in this volume to refer
to the age between the end of the Predynastic Period and the
beginning of the Fourth Dynasty. I t would admittedly be better, in
the light of recent discoveries at Saqqara, to use the term
Protodynastic for the First and Second Dynasties only. The forms of
the pottery and stone vases of the Fourth Dynasty are more closely
akin to the earlier types than to those of the Fifth. But the term
"Old Kingdom" has hitherto been con- veniently used for the period
of the builders of the great pyramids at Gizeh and of their
successors, and so it has been retained in the present volume.
32. The Protodynastic cemeteries which we worked at Qau,
Hemamieh, and Badari were all small, and the ground had generally
been re-used at one or more later periods. At Qau these graves were
all, with the exception of 669, in that part of the cemetery close
to the cultivation and adjoining the Ezbet Ulad el Hagg Ahmed. In
fact the ancient cemetery runs under the modern village. We call
this cemetery 400, and the graves numbered 400, 500, 700, and 800
are situated in it. The general date is Second and Third
Dynasty.
At Hemamieh the cemetery was mainly south of the wadi, and the
graves are numbered 1500-1800. Only three were found to the north,
1964, 2048, and 2071. The date of all these is about S.D. 77-80, or
roughly First Dynasty.
Farther north the only true Protodynastic cemetery was close to
the camp, and just south of the great wadi. I t is referred to as
Cemetery 6000, and is likewise of the First Dynasty. This was
tsrribly plundered, and we did not work it out com- pletely. On
Spurs 5 and 6 lay several large stairway tombs (3100-3200) of the
Second and Third Dynas- ties. They were not, however, surrounded by
graves of dependents.
33. The details of the graves are very fully set out in the Tomb
Register, ppl. X, xi. Dimensions are all in inches. The azimuth or
orientation of the graves was measured roughly with a prismatic
compass. The sex of immature bodies is often
indefinite, and is therefore given as C (child). The new forms
of pottery are drawn on ppl. xiii-xvi, and previously known forms
recorded by means of the cor$us in PETRIE, Tarkhan I, II. A list of
these known types is given on pl. xvi. The word " patt." refers to
the types of rope-pattern round the cylinder jars in the cor$us.
The small numbers in circles placed over the type numbers of beads
and amulets indicate the number of each found. Where there were
more than two or three, the letters F (few) and S (string) are
used. The sequence dates are all taken from the pottery types in
Tarkhan, and only approximately give the date of the grave. In the
column headed "Disturbed " the letter N means "Not," P " Partly,"
and Q " Quite." I t is im- portant to state this, as it is often
found that some of the objects in a grave remain in their original
posi- tions though part of the grave may be rifled. Thus pots are
found in place at the feet of a body which has had the head and
neck robbed.
A few antiquities were found in the cemeteries, though not
actually in graves. These when single are given the number of the
cemetery, a round hundred. For instance, take the pot pl. xiv, 81e,
numbered 1700 ; or the flaying knife pl. xx, 66, numbered 3200.
When groups of objects were found loose they have been numbered in
the usual way; such is the group of beads 5536.
CHAPTER V11
DETAILS OF PROTODYNASTIC GRAVES
34. THE following graves of the ist-iiird dynasties call for
special comment. These notes are supple- mentary to the Register
ppl. X, xi.
403. The date of this grave is uncertain. Most of the pottery is
clearly Protodynastic, with the exception of the rimmed bowl 12c,
which is like a late form of the polished bowls of Medum style,
such as 13r, pl. Ixxvi. The dog-head amulet, 16f, pl. xvii, is
common in the vith dyn., but not known to me earlier. I t seems
that either the bulk of the pottery has been re-used, or that the
amulet and perhaps one bowl are intrusive. The latter supposition
is much the more probable.
406. Burial of a small child 18 months old in a disused spouted
cooking-pot covered by a bowl. Two offering pots placed outside the
" coffin."
408. The pottery ring-stand was round the right forearm. The
date is not certain. The contracted
-
GRAVES 416 TO 429 I1
attitude is found as late as the ixth dyn. (Sect. 118) ; the
ring-stand too may quite well be later (see 9711, pl.
lxxxviii).
416. Rough pottery coffin with rounded angles and slightly
curved lid. The pot 3k was inside the coffin.
418. Woman's skull, one pot, and a quantity of beads in a rough
hole. The beads therefore need not be contemporary with the
pot.
419. Remains of a brick superstructure, rectan- gular, 28 X 37
ins. and 18 ins. high. Only the side walls remained. Round the base
and at the edge of the grave underneath had been placed a number of
pots, 37 complete and at least 20 in fragments. The grave itself
was roughly rectangular with rounded corners; it contained an
untouched contracted burial, probably male.
35. 429. The existence of this tomb was known to the villagers,
a fact which made us decide to clear completely the ground close to
the houses which we called " Cemetery 400." Natives had discovered
and cleared one large stairway tomb, obtaining from it many
alabasters and copper vessels, according to the tale. The omdeh
told us they had found a second tomb, but had abandoned it as it
went down to below water-level. Such stories are usually incorrect,
to say the least ; but this one proved to be true. We found the
robbed tomb, and then 429 alongside of it. The entrance from the
north began with two brick steps, then dropped over 2 ft. to a
slope running steeply down to a depth of over 20 ft. The floor was
some 3 ft. below the water-level at the time. The chamber, a large
one, had caved in all round to some extent. The actual burial-place
was probably a recess on the west (see plan pl. xii). There seems
to have been a recess on the south as well. I t was a matter of
great difficulty to fish out small objects from the thick muddy
water in the chamber. The larger vases were found and taken out
easily enough, but broken fragments were another matter altogether.
We bucketed out all the water, and then cleared out the stiffer mud
in baskets. This was next spread out on the surface to dry out in
the sun. It was then carefully broken up where necessary and the
whole mass passed through sieves. In this way about fifty fragments
of the fine hard limestone bowl (pl. xviii, 6) were recovered, and
it is now practically complete. The case was dif- ferent with the
little slate and alabaster lotus vase (xviii, 4) ; many of the
petals are still missing.
The objects from the chamber of this tomb are shown as a group
on pl. xviii, and in photograph pl. xxii. The pottery mostly comes
from the filling of the entrance ; it was very fragmentary. The
small pots 37n and ggy were in the room. The large alabaster
cylinder vase (xviii, I) was ground out so thin on one side that i
t has practically worn through. The lotus vase (4) is composed of
slate sepals and alabaster petals stuck on to a core of a greyish
white composition which resembles the gritty base used in
glaze-work. The neck and upper part of the body is of alabaster.
The table (11) is of very fine quality alabaster and rings
musically when struck. The copper ewer (xviii, 10) was in an
alrnosl perfect state of preservation, the corrosion being quite
thin and flaking away easily in places. The surface then has the
appearance of dull tarnished silver. When rubbed it becomes more
silvery, and if scratched, the underlying metal is seen to be more
or less copper-coloured. In this way the inscription near the rim
was revealed. I t gives the name of the priest 'Anti-hetep. The
spout is inserted in a hole in the body, and the edges hammered
over flat inside. At the shoulder the metal, a copper alloy, is a
tenth of an inch thick. (See Sect. 169.) The toggle (14) is of
glaze, very decayed, possibly originally green. In addition to the
objects shown on pl. xviii, and the pottery, there were : 8 rectan-
gular flint flakes (pl. xxii), 25 long flakes (pl. xxii), 2
saw-edged flakes, 3 broken and 4 rough flakes, part of a glaze
plaque for inlay (?), scraps of copper needles or pins, and some
shells, 3 S9atha rubens, I Nerita polita (pierced), and fragments
of two others.
The dating of this tomb is a matter of interest owing to the
various types of objects found in it. The pottery indicates a S.D.
80 (reign of Zet), but very little is characteristic. The lotus
vase is pre- cisely like the other found by the School at Bashkatib
in an open grave, of a type which, Professor Petrie states, "
vanishes after the iind dynasty " (Lahun I I , p. 22 ; pl. xliv,
4). The stone vases found in this grave were of S.D. 80-81. The
glaze toggle (14) is like others of the reign of Perabsen or
earlier (PBTRIE, Abydos I I , ppl. i and viii, 141- 143; p. 22). On
the other hand, the type of tomb with deep stairway entrance is
iind or iiird dyn., and Mace states that no stone tables are known
before the very end of the iind dyn. (Naga ed DBr 11, 46). The bowl
with recurved rim (6) of hard fine limestone is of the same form as
certain
-
I 2 DETAILS OF PROTODYNASTIC GRAVES
iiird dyn. pots, the ancestors of the Medum style of west ; two,
grg,, one, 68p, and the tiny bowl of bowls. The copper ewer (10) is
of the same shape black and white limestone (pl. xx, 55) a t the
head. as that from the tomb of King Hen-nekht, iiird Tightly
contracted female, head south. dyn. (GARSTANG, Mahdsna and B6t
Khalldf, pl. xx), 534. Body of a child in pot, 41t, covered with
though in that case the spout is double. Our 241. cylinder jar has
a very faintly marked rope pattern 544. A very unusual pottery
coffin, the lid (6 in. round the neck ; and this pattern is also
found in high) having four handles (photograph pl. xxii). the tomb
of King Neter-khet (ibid., pl. xiii, g). The pottery bowl, zqk,
shown in the photograph at The evidence can be discussed in much
greater detail, the side of the grave, was found 15 ins. above
south- and is very contradictory ; but enough has been said east
corner of coffin, and may not be contemporary. to show that the
last reign of the iind or the first For a similar coffin see
REISNER, Naga ed D27 reign of the iiird dyn. should be the date of
this I, p. 86. tomb. The objects which can be " sequence 551.
Pottery coffin + in. thick, with lid fallen dated " are too few to
be given much weight as in. Two jars, 57c. outside the east or head
end. evidence. 552. Burial of a small child with one pot, 68%.
36. 470. The chamber was closed by two brick The grave was
covered over with three old cooking- walls touching but not bonded.
pots, 99%
483. The two alabaster vases and the two pots 561. Body of an
adult male covered by an were found in position outside the
brickwork on inverted pot, 40j. The face was downwards, and the
north. The body had been thoroughly plun- the spine lay in three
sections, the central section dered. being at right angles to the
other two. The pot,
484. Irregular shaft ; chamber floor 18 ins. quite intact, was
almost filled with clean sand. lower than floor of shaft. The pots
were arranged Two small vases, gk and 37f2, remained in position
along the north and south ends of the chamber, against the east
side of the inverted pot, and there four in each row. The alabaster
vase was before was no sign of disturbance. It seems as if the
burial the face. pot had been filled with sand, the corpse placed
on
485 Floor of shaft sloping down into chamber ; the top in its
contracted position, and then the whole pots a t north end.
inverted when the grave was reached. This would
504. Pottery coffin, + in. thick; the lid pro- account for the
dislocation of the vertebrae, and jecting slightly and covered with
bricks. Male explain the presence of the sand over the body body,
with one long blue glaze cylinder bead, no inside the pot. doubt
from the neck. Rough pot against south 562. This large tomb was of
the stairway type. end of coffin. It was not completely cleared at
its northern end,
507. Deep, well-cut stairway tomb; chamber as a house of the
modern village had been built doorway close by large blocks of fine
limestone. over it. The three other sides of the approach had Quite
plundered, only one whole pot, 86b,, of rather been bricked round
at the top. The upper part of doubtful date, but many sherds of
regular Proto- the pit had been used in the xixth dyn. as a recep-
dynastic type. The form of the whole pot is of tacle for disused
objects of hippopotamus ivory, late First Intermediate date, but it
is covered with a and for a great quantity of mineralized bones,
mostly buff slip, and is therefore probably contemporary.
hippopotamus but including some other animals and One limestone
cylinder jar, scraps of three small a few human. Another such
deposit was found by alabaster vases, and seven flint flakes came
from the Professor Petrie in the following season near the
chambers. A flint knife was found lying on the Northern Cemetery.
The ivories will be described last step but two of the stairway. in
Volume 111. The mineralized bones will form the
514. Mud coffin with a wall of bricks against its subject of a
special memoir. north end, presumably to reinforce it. The body
From the original interment come a few pots, inside the coffin was
covered with mud. One pot for which see the Tomb Register; two
alabaster to south of coffin. vases (pl. xviii, 15,16) ; part of
another with loose
518. Pit nearly 8 ft. deep, walled and roofed with ring neck ;
and part of a very fine thin diorite bricks at a height of 31 ins.
Three pots, 68n,, above bowl. the vaulting. Two pots, 68n, at feet
; one, grg,, a t 37. 669. An unusual tomb, of very solid brick-
-
GRAVES 47(
work, with an offering chamber on the north, and possibly a "
serdab " to the west of that. This was bricked over ; and so was
the tomb itself, at a height of 30 ins. The six pots (four of type
63 o) had been placed outside the north-west angle of the offering
chamber. The burial was apparently multiple, as both male and
female bones were found, all probably contemporary.
714. Untouched burial wrapped in reeds, with three pots, 54j
(one) and 54p (two), just north of the head. The body was in an
attitude with knees flexed (pl. xxv, 6d). I t is difficult to
suppose that this attitude was used in Protodynastic times ;
probably the pottery is really of a later date, perhaps vith dyn.
when other burials in reeds are found.
820. Burial of an adult female, contracted and upright. The
upper part of the body was covered by an inverted pot, 40g, 2 1
ins, in diameter and 15 ins. deep, resting all round on a ledge.
Placed round this were six vases, two of type gk and two of
681.
38. 1520. An undisturbed burial in a bricked-up chamber. The
attitude was type 5ba. pl. xxv. The bowl, 3n,, was at the east side
of chamber ; the spouted jug, ggx, in the south-west corner. Three
regular Protodynastic pots were at the bottom of the shaft, in the
filling, and therefore not necessarily contemporary. I t is
difficult to date this tomb. The dimensions are unusual ; the
attitude should be later than the vth dynasty; the jug and basin
certainly seem to be of earlier types than those of the ivth and
vth dynasties, ppl. lxxvi, lxxxi. See tombs 1561, 1562.
1561. Similar to 1520 in plan and proportions, but rather
smaller, and with chamber on south. The attitude of the body was
also very much the same. The one pot was in the north side of the
shaft and just possibly not contemporary.
1562. Burial in a similar attitude. This tomb was more like the
usual Protodynastic in form than the previous two ; but there was
no pottery by which to date it.
1592. Grave lined with bricks at the sides and mud plastered.
Floor mud plastered only. Pots in north-east and north-west
angles.
1699. Ch'11d about three years old, untouched. Three beads at
neck. Malachite and galena in the little bowl, IW, close to the
head. The other two pots just behind the back.
1784. Young girl (?) undisturbed. Ivory hair-
pin. Two ivory bangles at wrists; nine ivory anklets on legs.
Beads at neck and wrists.
1785. Limestone saucer in south-east corner of grave ; row of
five pots along west side, with plain rectangular slate palette (5
X 3 ins.) in the middle of the row. The rest of the grave had been
com- pletely cleared out.
1786. Undisturbed brick-lined grave of a girl. One pot, grd,, in
south-west corner ; three saucers, In and In,, the slate palette,
pl. xxi, 37, and a brown jasper grinding pebble near the north-west
corner ; small triangular slate and pebble in north- east corner ;
pots 93r, and jog in south-east corner ; and the three other pots
along east side. Galena and malachite which had probably been in
the saucers. String of black paste beads at neck. Finger ring and
bangle of very decayed copper. Ivory needle and copper needle close
to head.
1795. At the west end of the spur south of the Hemamieh wadi we
found traces of a brick mastaba (?) with one scrap of fine
limestone sculptured with the hieroglyph z. The pit was over 25 ft.
deep, and went down below the January water-level We accordingly
left it alone till the end of the season, and managed to bucket out
what remained of the water just before we closed down the camp. The
tomb had been a rich one as the chamber was lined and floored with
limestone blocks. I t had been completely rifled, only three pots
remaining.
1964. Pottery coffin with rounded corners and flat lid. The body
was male, with small beard, and was wrapped in linen of two
qualities. At the hands was a goat-skin (?) bag containing the
copper flaying knife, pl. xx, 67, two hard black pebbles for
whetting, and one softer pebble. A report on the linen, by Mr. T.
Midgley, is given in Badari.
39. 3112. A tomb of some importance, as one of the alabaster
vase fragments is inscribed with the name of King Hetepsekhemui,
the first king of the iind dynasty. Unfortunately the tomb
furniture had been so completely smashed that none of the alabaster
vases could be restored, and only four or five were even drawable.
These are shown, pl. xix, 22-27. The inscription is photographed
pl. xxii. The tomb was entered by a steep stairway descending to
the south. At the surface a line of bricks was traceable, forming a
rectangle 315 X 602 ins. surrounding the entrance. The main chamber
has a smaller one opening out of it on the west, no doubt for the
actual burial ; see plan pi. xxiv. The main doorway was closed by a
huge roughly
-
I4 DETAILS OF PROTODYNASTIC GRAVES
dressed block of limestone, but there were no grooves in the
sides of the shaft to guide it when being lowered. We found this
block practically in position. The interior of the chamber could be
seen over the top of it, but there was no room for even the
smallest boy to enter until the stone had been levered away. Our
hopes were high that the tomb was intact ; but as usual they were
not fulfilled. We must suppose that the stone was pressed back into
position by the great weight of sand when the entrance filled up
again. The blocking stone measures 70 X 39 X 17 ins.
No pottery was found with the exception of a few sherds in the
filling of the stairway. The alabaster fragments were all lying on
either side of the blocking stone. In addition to the bowls drawn
there had been three large cylinder jars without rope pattern ;
small bowl in grey and yellow shelly marble ; an alabaster bowl (?)
with spout : two thick vessels with rope pattern ; a very large
flat dish and four other dishes in wavy, pink-veined, or " pudding
" alabaster ; and nineteen dummy lime- stone cylinder jars of
various sizes (two drawn). We also found fragments of the bones ; a
flat piece of steatite (inlay ?) ; and a few scraps of copper,
almost certainly from model vessels.
40. 3227. A very deep stairway tomb surrounded at the surface by
a lime of bricks in the form of a rectangle. The chamber was very
roughly cut, none of the rock surfaces being at all flat. I t was
quite empty. A few broken pots were found in the filling of the
stairway. A later extended burial in a plain wooden coffin without
objects had been laid in the south-west angle of the stairway at a
depth of 64 ins. This was undisturbed, showing that the tomb had
not been plundered in modern times. Close to the north-east corner
of the line of bricks, and under the bricks which were in actual
contact with the skull, lay the skeleton of a young person about 12
years old, head south, face west, hands down, knees sharply flexed.
There were traces of clothing, and the remains of leather sandals
on the feet. A hurried and informal interment is indi- cated,
though one must hesitate before suggesting a foundation sacrifice.
The infant burial, grave 3183. was near the north-west corner of
the " mastaba."
3228. Another stairway tomb, with two chambers at different
levels. Seven and a half feet deep over the stairway (see plan pl.
xii, 6) was the contracted body of a young man, undisturbed, with
traces of
linen. In the upper chamber were the bones of a child of 12,
buried apparently before the lower chamber was made. The remains of
seven alabaster vases, one carnelian bead, a glaze pendant in the
form of a shell, bracelets of ivory and shell, and a model chisel
(?) of copper, were found with the bones. In the lower room all
that remained was one broken alabaster bowl. All the pottery found
came from the filling. In addition to the forms given in the
register, there was also a piece of a grooved spout in black
pottery, probably from a ewer. Most of the filling of the entrance
to the tomb was in its original state, the robbers having entered
the chambers from the adjoining tomb 3229.
3229. Stairway tomb alongside 3228. Very irregular, roughly cut
chamber, with a hole leading through into 3228. On the third step
of the approach lay the burial of an infant. The cup of alabaster,
pl. xix, 39, photograph pl. xxii, is of a type found in the tomb of
King Neter-khet (GAR- STANG, Muhdsfiu, pl. xiv, 21). The date of
these three tombs 3227-9 is no doubt iiird dynasty.
41. 6001. Plundered grave with pottery, a few beads, a gazelle's
skull, a flint flake, and a flint pebble, 3'6 ins. long, the tip
naturally coloured deep red.
6019. Brick-lined rectangular grave of an adult male,
contracted, head south. Four pots at north end of grave, two being
of type 60j. One pot, 94e, before face. Slate palette, plain ovoid,
under head. Fragments of ivory hair-pin, and a shell armlet.
Various beads, probably from neck.
7324. Underneath a disturbed burial lying north and south, a
group of three fine flint adzes was found in Professor Petrie's
work, photograph pl. xxii, together with some small flints, a large
shell, and a pounder (?) ; these are probably of about the ist
dynasty.
CHAPTER V111
PROTODYNASTIC SUMMARY
42. The Ty$es of Tomb. The earliest type was the rather neatly
cut brick-lined rectangular grave of Dynasties 0 and I. These were
probably roofed over in some way with sticks or some perishable
material, though we found no evidence of it. The dimensions of the
bricks are usually about 11 X 54 X 3 ins., but vary from g ins. up
to 13 ins. See Register. The depth of the graves varied from 3 to 7
ft.
-
TYPES OF TOMBS AND BODIES I5
In the Second and Third Dynasties the finer tombs are all of the
stairway and chamber type. Reisner considers all large stairway
tombs to be of the Third Dynasty (Naga-ed-D&r I , p. 137). But
we have here at Badari one such tomb with the name of
Hetep-sekhemui on a vase ; and though this may have been handed
down, we can hardly suppose it to have survived the whole of the
Second Dynasty. On the other hand, the tombs at Sed- ment with long
stairways and containing stone tables are considered by Professor
Petrie to be of the Second Dynasty (PETRIE and BRUNTON, Sed- ment I
, p. 2) ; and he dates the shallow stairway tombs at Bashkatib to
S.D. 80, 81, or the reigns of Zet and Den (Lahun 11, p. 24) ; but
the deeper ones are probably later.
The surface area round the entrance to the stair- ways was
surrounded by a brick wall in the cases of 3112,3227, and of two
others on Spur 5, not here published in detail, as they contained
no objects whatever. The other stairway tombs may have been
similarly surrounded, but all traces of brick- work had vanished
owing to the constant re-use of the ground in later times. Only
one, or at best two, courses of bricks remained; the wall of one
(un- published) was 28 ins. thick. The width of the rectangles
enclosed was very slightly more than half the length of the sides.
Probably the purpose of these brick walls was merely to surround
the tomb, as seen in modern cemeteries at Badari to-day, and not to
retain a mastaba of rubble. The area enclosed is far too great for
that to be likely, being in one case (3227) 73 f t . long in the
side.
The stairways are generally uninterrupted, and widen gradually
with the depth. Some, however, had only a few steps at the top (429
and 438), leading to a steep slope. The burial-chamber was in all
instances except one (507) to the west of the main room.
There were only a very few tombs with shaft and chamber which
could be assigned to this period. All these were of small
dimensions. The Hemamieh examples were rather doubtful in date. The
cham- bers were on the south in eight cases ; on the west in six ;
on the north in two ; and on the east in one.
43. Attitudes of Bodies. All the burials were more or less
tightly contracted on left side with the exception of 714, 1520,
1561, and 1562, the dates of which are wcertain. See Sections 37,
38. The
body under the brick wall of 3227 was also not contracted ; but
this was not a regular burial in a grave. The direction of the head
was to the south in 8 graves at Qau, 6 at Hemamieh, and 3 at
Badari; to the north in 27 at Qau, 11 at Hema- mieh, and 3 at
Badari. The south position was almost if not quite universal up to
S.D. 79. After that the &rection is reversed in most cases. Two
bodies were found lying head east, and 5 head west.
44. Pot Burials. In half of these the pot was inverted over the
body, as was usually the case in the Old Kingdom; in the other half
the pot was right way up and sometimes covered by another pot or
pots. As to sex, 5 burials were male, 3 female, and 4 children. The
evidence is too scanty to be of much weight, but one is led to
believe that the burials in pots are found only in the earlier
Protodynastic and possibly late Predynastic times, while the
burials under pots gradually became the only method. A point worthy
of note is that we found no pot burials associated with cemeteries
of Dynasties 0 and I, thus agreeing with the remark of Mace
(Cemeteries of Abydos 111, p. 20). For the later pot burials, see
Chapter X.
45. The Pottery. Plates xiii-xvi. There is very little to be
said about the pottery forms, which are mostly well-known types or
variants. The " bread pots," 5c, qb, and gk, pl. xiii, perhaps show
a degra- dation. The first is well baked and carefully finished
inside ; the next is only half-baked, but fairly well shaped; the
third is the rough form with unfinished base. Both these last two
continue in use into the Fourth Dynasty and possibly later. The
basin, 3n2, found with a spouted jug, ggx2, is of a fine
orange-pink ware ; it is apparently an early form of the polished
red basins found with ewers in the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties (pl.
lxxvi, 4). The jars with strainers, gz12, gzl,, and ggx3, are
noteworthy. The round-bodied jar 87h, is of very fine hard pink
ware, with an extremely smooth surface. Another interesting form is
type 37. These bowls, similar in shape to the stone vessels (pl.
xviii, g ; xix, 35) of late Second or Third Dynasty, are probably
the earliest forms of the well-known Medum style of bowls of
polished red ware, which run on into the Sixth Dynasty. They are
generally of a fine orange-red pottery, not apparently polished as
a rule.
46. The Beads and Amulets. Plate xvii. The amulet 1pZL is like
rpZl (pl. xciii) of vii-viiith dyn. I t is probably a human figure.
The lion's
-
16 PROTODYNASTIC SUMMARY
head 164 is very like that figured in PETRIE and QUIBELL,
Naqada, pl. lviii, grave 1289, of S.D. 80. Another of closely the
same date was found at Gurob in 1920. The date of the Hemamieh
example is S.D. 77-79, by the pottery. All three are of car-
nelian. I t is interesting to see such widespread examples agreeing
closely in form, material, and date. The dog's head or jackal's
head 16f7 is so like the many examples of vi-viiith dyn. (pl. xcv)
that i t seems probable that this example is really of that date.
See Section 34. The ox-head 24a,, very carefully cut in black
steatite, is an unusual type ; the amulet is known in Predynastic
times (PETRIE, Amulets, p. 19). The " bull's head" 3za3 is another
Predynastic amulet of which many examples are known. I t varies
much in form ; that it represents the head of a bull with
down-curv- ing horns is perhaps the most likely suggestion ; but
the long snout in this late example is difficult to explain. Other,
and possibly debased, forms are shown in PETRIE, Abydos I, pl. li,
4, Abydos I I , pl. xiv ; REISNER, Arch. Survey of Nubia, 1907-8.
pl. lxx, a7 ; 1908-9, pl. xxxvii, ar7. The " snout " may be
intended for a pole. The horizontal grooves are something like the
markings on what is probably a pole in the amulets of the head of
Hathor (PETRIE, Amulets, pl. xxx, 171a, b, f ; BRUNTON, Lahun I,
pl. viii). The idea of the pole suggests a connexion with the
bucrania on poles. The large steatite fly, 36p,, was found loose in
the sand in Cemetery 1500 (Hemamieh). Large flies such as this are
known in the xviith and early xviiith dyns. ; but there was no
cemetery of this period at Hemamieh, and the large flies of that
period are all of hone, as far as I know, while this is of
steatite. I have therefore taken it as contemporary with the
Protodynastic graves of the district among which it was found. The
fly is well known as an amulet in the Predynastic period (PETRIE,
Prehistoric Egypt, pl. ix, 14, 15; Naqada, pl. xviii, Q23). The
snake's head amulet, 43p3, is not found in the Old and Middle
Kingdoms ; but examples of rather different form occur in the
Predynastic age (PETRIE, Amulets, p. 26). The limestone shell 56d7
(probably Nerita ccrassilabrzsm) is only known as an amulet in the
Predynastic period and in the Middle Kingdom (Amulets, p. 27). The
glaze 56ez, Cavdium edule (?), is also not found until later in the
First Intermediate Period (Amulets, p. 27). The hour-glass or
dumb-bell bead in carnelian and amethyst, 73m2, is particularly in-
teresting, as I believe it has not been found except
in the bracelets from the tomb of Zer at Abydos (PETRIE, Royal
Tombs II , p. 19). The S.D. 80 assigned to grave 1742 is just what
would be expected. I t will be noted that these beads are pierced,
while those from Abydos are not. The flat triangular pendant of
serpentine, 8gn3, reminds one of the model stone celts used as
charms against lightning (" thunderbolts ") in Japan and South
Italy, and also found of neolithic times in Malta.
As to materials used for beads, it will be noticed at once what
a large proportion are made of stone, often hard. The carnelian is
often of a rather distinctive coral-pink colour, and only slightly
translucent. There are also beads of porphyry (?), felspar,
olivine, lazuli, quartz, amethyst, garnet, and haematite. These
last three stones are not found at all in the Old Kingdom, nor in
the First Intermediate Period until the xith dyn. is reached ; in
fact haematite does not occur again until the xiith dyn. Quartz is
found sporadically from the ixth dyn. onwards, but rarely in the
Old Kingdom. Briefly, the use of hard stones in the middle-class
graves of the Qau district continues from the Predynastic period
into the First Dynasty, and then dies out (carnelian always
excepted), the few examples being probably survivals. Hard stone
beads gradually come into use again just prior to the Middle
Kingdom. Active trade with Nubia and the South was probably the
determining factor. Glaze, of course, is found at all times. In the
Protodynastic period there is dark and pale blue, green, black, and
white. The pale blue is striking, and seems to be confined to the
Third Dynasty, or about that time. The white glaze is remarkable ;
both graves in which beads of this material were found are of the
First Dynasty. There is also one case of a " crumbed " bead of the
same date, a spheroid of blue glaze with white crumbs.
47. Stow Vases. Plates xviii-xx. The majority of these are of
late Second or Third Dynasty, and call for little comment. They
have been arranged in groups throughout, and are all of alabaster
unless stated otherwise, I t will be noticed that there are none of
the stone dishes so common in the First Dynasty. In tomb 3112,
dated to the reign of Hetep-sekhemni or soon after, we found the
frag- ments of several, all undrawable. Their use had quite died
out in the Third Dynasty ; none was found by us, nor by Garstang at
B&t Khallaf and Reqaqnah. in tombs of that age. The continued
use of fine cylinder jars with rope pattern is noteworthy. They
-
METAL, PALETTES, FIGURES AND INSCRIPTIONS I?
occurred side by side with coarse dummy cylinder jars of
limestone in tomb 3112 (pl. xix, 23, 24), a fact which contradicts
any suggestion that these dummies were late and debased survivals.
Pro- bably they represent offerings made at the time of the funeral
by the poorer members of the household or estate. One cylinder jar,
pl. xx, 48, shows the outward curve at the foot which became the
charac- teristic type of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties. The hard
limestone bowls, very finely worked (6, 35). were copied in pottery
(pl. xiii, 37m) ; this form is probably the ancestor of the
well-known red polished bowls with recurved rim of Medum style, the
deeper forms of which are the earlier.
48. Co9per Objects. The ewer, pl. xviii, 10, has been discussed
in Sections 35, 169. Other examples are shown on pl. vi of
GAKSTANG, Third Egy$tian Dynasty, and, rather taller, on pl. iii of
QUIBELL, El Kab, of the time of Sneferu. Of the same date is that
of Queen Hetepheres (REISNER, Ill. London News, 26th March 1927, p.
538). Such ewers are generally accompanied by basins (PETKIE,
Sedment I 1 i). The flaying knives, pl. xx, 66, 67, and pl. xxii,
are of about the First Dynasty ; the pair in gold found by Reisner
in the tomb of Queen Hetepheres (Ill. London News, 26th March 1gz7,
p. 538) are really razors, having only one edge sharpened. For
their use see PETRIE, Tools and Wea+orts, p. 22. Remains of what
were probably model vessels in copper were found in tomb 3112,
early Second Dynasty ; for others of about this date or rather
later, see MACE, Naga-ed-DBr 11, pl. xviiia, tombs N4376 and N4506.
The use of these continued throughout the Old Kingdom, see pl. xl,
18. We also found a scrap of a model tool in tomb 3228 ; these are
of frequent occurrence from the time of Kha-sekhemui (PETRIE, Royal
Tombs 11, pl. ixA). Copper needles were found in graves 429 (late
Second) and 1786 (First Dynasty) ; also pins in 1762 (First
Dynasty). A finger-ring and bangle of copper occurred in grave 1786
; for others of the first two dynasties, see REISNER, Naga-ed- DBr
I , p. I I ~ .
49. O